The Renaissance of Western Politics: The Good-Enough Leader, Relational Economics, and an Empathic Foreign Policy

J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 0 9 W W W. T I K K U N . O R G T I K K U N 43 I. Hope And Disappointment In Politics—A Personal Memoir I n1996,justbeforethepresidentialelectionofthatyear,Ispoke at a conference on psyche and politics in San Francisco. I flew back to Britain to attend the Labour Party Convention. There I heard Tony Blair, for whom I was a consultant at the time, tell the party that Britain was a “young country” with everything to look forward to. After we won in 1997, there was going to be an ethical foreign policy, a revitalized concern for citizens from the cradle to the grave, and the harnessing of the best elements from the market economy, as well as from social democracy. Hope was everywhere. I dared to believe in it. I was ecstatic when my proposal for a series of public apologies was accepted, and I was naively dismayed when the media mocked Blair’s public apology for the Irish Potato Famine: “He’ll be apologizing for the weather next,” they sneered. Well,weallknowhowbadlyitturnedout:hehadthelowestratingofanypostwar prime minister. True hatred and contempt were directed against this man from all quarters of British (and world) society. We had idealized him, but our hopesweredashedashispromisetransmutedintocorruption,asheclimbedinto bedwiththeCityofLondonandWallStreet,andasheembracedbetrayalandwarmongering . It was a crippling and defining experience for me. I almost loved him and then I think I really hated him. And I hated myself, too. What I am remembering from my own experience could be a parable. I’ll return to the theme of hope and disappointment throughout this article. Overthepastfifteenyears,Ihavebuiltaninternationalpracticeasapoliticalconsultant working with leading politicians, their advisers, political parties, and activist groups in severalcountries .Inparticular,Ihavegravitatedtoworkinthegeneralareaofnationalism,nationalidentity ,andnationbuilding(inSouthAfrica,Brazil,Poland,andRussia).Mywriting is grounded in these experiences. I mistrust realistic people. They have done a lot of damage, telling us not to imagine a The Renaissance of Western Politics: The Good-Enough Leader, Relational Economics, andanEmpathicForeignPolicy by Andrew Samuels Andrew Samuels—a psychotherapist, university professor, political consultant, and activist from London—is the founder of Jews for Justice for Palestinians and of Psychotherapists and Counselors for Social Responsibility, and author of Politics on the Couch. TheauthoridealizedTonyBlair asacandidateandthenwasso disappointedbyhisperformance asBritishprimeministerthat,he says,“IthinkIreallyhatedhim.” AreAmericansindangerof doingthesamewithObama? GETTY IMAGES/PAUL J. RICHARDS Politics_1.qxd:Politics 6/16/09 2:42 PM Page 43 utopicmoveoutofthesocialandpoliticalconditionsinwhichwefindourselves.Ifwe cannot imagine such a move, then there can be no personal growth, change, or transformation , no therapy or analysis in fact. All these things depend on a utopic fantasy of a kind. Alltoooften,though,so-calledrealistspointtotheexcessesofidealistsasevidence ofthedangersofdreaming.ButthisequatingofutopicvisionwithStalinorMaoisnot a detached and wise perspective—it is a highly political one, making a propaganda point against change and transformation in the polis. From a therapy standpoint, many practitioners now agree that every single client in personal distress has to have or work on a little bit of a utopic social vision. For social conditions to change, clinical practice has to change, and vice versa. And things are changing in the clinic if not, as yet, in the world. In terms of the engagement of psychoanalysis with the public sphere, the time has come to break some boundaries. It’s time to learn how to transit better the divides we have been told exist between clinical office and the street, between spirituality and politics, between “above” and “below,” between the inner world and the outer world, between being and doing, between extraversion and introversion, and even between what people still call “feminine” and “masculine” approaches to life. Working these forbidden zones, and doing it in the company of a growing number of people worldwide , shows that it is legitimate and necessary to reframe the relationship of the public and the private, seeking new back passages between the fantasies of the political world and the politics of the fantasy world. II. Good-Enough Leadership I want now to look at one specific, contemporary, political disease: the problem of hierarchical, heroic leadership. Political theory and practice assume there aretwomainapproachestoleadership:oneisheroicandhierarchical,andtheotheris collaborative. The hierarchical and heroic leadership is based on male authority (think Meir, thinkThatcher,thinkIndiraGandhi)andassumesthereisbutoneobjectivelytruesocial story. In this model, there are good leaders and there are bad leaders...